A few basic questions regarding burning .MPG files

[EssWhyKay]

Howdy everybody. I'm very new to the DVD burning process, so please go easy on me

I just received some blank DVDs from a friend and wanted to try out my DVD burner.

I've read a bunch of topics on how to burn files and I've gotten kinda far on them, but I can't figure out what .bin and .iso files are.

I have .MPG and .AVI files I would like to burn to DVD. Nothing fancy, just burn them so I can watch them on my DVD player. Do I need to convert them to one of the aforementioned file types before I can burn? Or is .MPG or .AVI okay?

Thanks everyone!

[guns1inger]

.bin and .iso files are images of either CDs or DVDs (depending on the source). They contain exactly what what on the originals. It is also possible to create an .iso (or .bin) from scratch, to make it easier to burn (everything is in one file until burned, so nothing gets lost).

Most DVD players will not play .avi or .mpeg directly off the DVD. Some will, if they are in the correct format (usually mpeg-4 - Divx, Xvid for .AVI, and compliant mpeg). If you want to have it play like a DVD (chapters, perhaps a menu etc) then you need to author a DVD. There are plenty of tools to do this, and plenty of guides int he guides section. Essentially - encode the avi as a DVD compliant mpeg-2 file, drop it in an authoring program, then burn the results. Life is rarely this simple, but we are here if you get lost.

Good luck.

[EssWhyKay]

Is there a program I need to download to convert my MPG files to the proper .bin or .iso file?

[guns1inger]

Process is

video (avi, mpeg etc) -> encode to DVD compliant mpeg (1 or 2) -> author to DVD -> output for burning (Video_TS folder and files or .ISO)

Look at the Guides and the Tools tp the left. The most popular and cost effective seem to be Tmpgenc for encoding to mpeg-2 and Tmpgenc DVD Author for auhtoring your DVD and creating the Video_TS folder and DVD files.

[EssWhyKay]

I downloaded the programs and converted an .mpg file with the software you gave me and now I can't watch the file on my computer.

When I open up Winamp or Windows Media Player and try and watch the newly encoded .mpg it shuts down Winamp and Windows Media.

Any thoughts?

[BJ_M]

install a mpeg2 codec and keep reading

[EssWhyKay]

Alright, I've downloaded the Codec (thanks a lot!) and installed it. I just converted the .mpg to the proper .mpg format once again, and now I can play it in Winamp and Windows Media.

So now what am I supposed to do to convert it to the proper DVD file? Is it .cue or .bin or something?

[EssWhyKay]

Alright, I just burned my first DVD

I burned it as MPG2 after I converted it and used the programs you guys suggested to get it to work. Thanks a lot everyone!

I'll have more questions later, but thanks a lot for this. Good day!

[BJ_M]

burned it as mpeg2 ?

did you author it first ?

then you wouldnt be burning a mpeg2 file but a bunch of VOB's andcrap like that ..

and two folders:

VIDEO_TS
AUDIO_TS

[EssWhyKay]

Yep! That's how I did it. I meant to say I converted the normal .MPG files to the proper .MPG2 files and then authored it and finished it off with the right program and put it on disc. Everything worked great.

I have a new question though. Is there a program that lets me convert .avi to .mpg? If there is, can you please let me know which one? Thanks again!

[BJ_M]

tmpgenc
CCE
QuENC
main concept
procoder
squeeze

are a few

[macleod]

www.thefilmmachine.com

[EssWhyKay]

tmpgenc
CCE
QuENC
main concept
procoder
squeeze

are a few

The only one that I could get to work was Main Concept and it wouldn't let me convert properly. It had some error and stopped the conversion. And the link above you gave is dead. Any other programs to convert .avi to .mpg?

Thanks again!

[mats.hogberg]

There are others, but this list pretty much sums your options up.
If an encoder craps out while encoding, it's mostly due to some error in what it's trying to encode.

/Mats

[EssWhyKay]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the reply. Another question. I'm trying to convert an .mpg to .mpg2 with TMPGEnc, and this file and a few others get to 98% or so and stop. The message says something like "stream writing error".. any idea why I get this error all of a sudden? Thanks.

[BJ_M]

out of space ? using fat32 drives ?

[EssWhyKay]

out of space ? using fat32 drives ?

That was it. I was out of space on my C Drive. I deleted 60 or so albums so I'm good now. Still trying to figure out which program is easiest to convert .avi to .mpg though. Thanks again for your help.

[BJ_M]

the film machine
main concept
procoder
squeeze
tmpgenc

are the easy one to use ..

[EssWhyKay]

the film machine
main concept
procoder
squeeze
tmpgenc

are the easy one to use ..

The Film Machine won't accept any of my .avi files for some reason. Main Concept worked this time, though. Thanks a lot man.

[EssWhyKay]

New question.. Is there any way I can convert .mp4 to .mpg? Or even .mp4 to .avi and then to .mpg?

Thanks in advance.